Why didn't Mike Tyson and George Foreman ever fight?

4 years of activity and gaining confidence from a win streak will do wonders for a fighters ability to perform. As opposed to being bitter after back2back losses, chowing down on food, and being inactive for a year then fighting a monster with no tune ups. Are we really having this debate?

The point youre running from is regardless of how good he looked against mercer, Holmes was not in great shape, inactive and coming off a loss WHEN tyson beat him. Ignoring all those facts makes you look dishonest and stupid and i know youre not an idiot so where does that leave you?

He had 3 he fights, 1 against an aging champ who wasnt known for being a hars hitter, an inactive Cooney who didnt land much, and a tyson who demolished him in 1. The safest conclusion you can make is his chin was glass at worst and average at best. You do nor get sparked out in 1 round if you have a "great" chin. At light heavy he very well might have had one but there are weight classes for a reason.

Let's say it was legit. Tubbs still showed up out of shape on purpose to spite people who wouldnr get off his back even when he was offered a bonus.

But he kept winning. After 25 fights and a 24-0-1 record, he beat Tim Witherspoon in August 1984 to win the world heavyweight title.

Two fights later, it was all lost, and Thomas eventually reverted to the hopeless lifestyle he had embraced growing up in Pontiac, Mich."

So in the article YOU posted it says 2 fights after the witherspon win he reverted back to his hopeless life style. That would mean that he apprently started doing drugs again after the berbick loss in 86, which waa BEFORE he fought Tyson.

You were wrong and now you think you can get under my skin by claiming this win is scraping a barrel. Foreman kod 2 ranked fighters, take the L kid.

When you factor in holmes was an inactive old champ coming off a loss looking for a payday, a glass jawed blown up light heavy, tubbs was fat and out of shape on purpose, and thomas was a coke head, it levels the playing field a bit.

The thing is if we want to focus only on the "names" regardless of what condition they were in to assess ko power, tyson is pretty lacking. Visual evidence, testimony from common opponents, ko%, etc tell much more clear stories. If most of tysons kos werent guys who were inactive or out of shape youd have a better leg to stand on. By your logic Ali hits harder than Tyson.

I didnt write the rules of boxing. Ruddock was raring to go and clear eyed. The Bruno fight would be a much better stoppage to defend and prop up as evidence of tysons power as he was helpless, made no protest, and wasnt even competitive.

Youre right. Theres a huge gulf between foreman and tyson. A 30 pound weight difference plus advantages in height, chin, reach, power, and this thing called mental strength, something tyson lacked. Ruddock not winning the 1st fight wasnt even the point of tbe discussion.

Of course he wasn't, but its not like tysons power was a 10 and tommys was a 4, if theres one thing tommt could do it was punch.

So ill ask again, why did such a hard hitter get on his bike and abandon the idea of koing a man 20 years older? Do you think tyson would do the same thing?

You're thinking of 70's george. Old george was very textbook and patient and had a great jab.

Has **** all to do with the fact he never showed he could take a good body shot.

Tyson will land, i never disagreed. I just think he wont really get anywhere with a purely offensive get him out of there gameplan. He will either gas out first, get drug into a slugfest and be brutally kod, or a very slim chance the ref jumps in with those silly premature stoppages. Too many things can go wrong for me to confidently pick Tyson. It would be an ugly fight and foreman wont just stand there regardless of the speed gap. At some point he'd nail Tyson who might think twice about just rushing in.

The ref might count to 100 over a sprawled out Tyson before he lands 100 on any version of george.

You obviously didnt read it. If youre not gonna bother then neithee will I.

Im not conceding anything, i still think theres a good possibility foreman manhandled him if tyson just goes for broke aggressively. I dont think its the most "likely" scenario but given tysons short stature and lack of mental strength and being easy to push back and tie up, its a strong possibility. Are we forgetting an old, shopworn and much smaller holyfield bullied and pushed back Tyson? Before you say "wah wah he was past prime too" remember that im just point out a clash of styles that weve already seen and tyson had no answer for it. Its a fundamental flaw, in his style and his mental toughness. You are only focused on tysons raw talent.

Baer vs louis wasnt a slugfest anyway, louis picked him apart with sharp accurate shots at mid range.

Hagler vs hearns bigger man won
Maidana vs Ortiz, bigger man won
Bowe vs holyfield bigger man won
Tim Bradley vs provodnikiv
Ibeabuchi vs tua
Lyle vs shavers
Foreman vs chuvalo

Seems like being taller and heavier with longer arms gives you a natural advantage in a close range slugfest. Who knew?

Funny that before your narrative was george is a big easy target and since these guys unloaded on him tyson would too. Now all of a sudden its these guys hardly landed anything? Lol. So which is it, do you agree with me or not that foreman took some monster shots and thus tyson would NOT "easily" stop foreman in the first couple rounds like you fanboys claim?

Cooney landed a huge hook to foremans chest that rattled him. Foreman said on the letterman show that it was one of the hardest punches he ever felt.

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Funny he also mentions that he's confident hed smash tyson in 2 in this clip.

 

It will be from rigor mortis. Rigor mortis will set in or at least that's how Foreman would look performance wise against Iron Mike.

 

Four years of aging, sparring, fighting do not improve a fighter between the ages of 38 and 42, especially things like chin and reflexes. You simply can't get around this. Damn, that Holmes comeback is inconvenient!

The point you're running from is that a four years older Holmes was still beating rated contenders. You can talk about being in shape, active, confident, whatever. He was still 42. Now either Holmes defied the ageing process, or, I dunno, maybe who he was fighting had something to do with him being knocked smack cold in four rounds.

The safest conclusion is he was hit by Mike Tyson. Funny how all these fighters who had never been dropped/stopped before suddenly had chin issues against him...

Changed your mind then? You were adamant it was a fake and a dive one post back. Perhaps you should watch fights before commenting next time. Tubbs was always out of shape. Nevertheless he was talented and did a number on Riddick Bowe a few years later. And once again no one had ever demolished Tubbs the way Tyson did.

Can you read? Two fights after Witherspoon he lost his title to Berbick. That's what was lost. The article makes no mention of him being on coke at that point.

He checked out in a hazy blur of smoking cocaine after losing to Evander Holyfield in September 1988. He lost 13 pounds in a drug-induced stupor. All the while, he kept fooling himself that he could still fight. He tried reaching out to his former trainer, the legendary Angelo Dundee, who abruptly told him to get lost before hanging up the phone.

You couldn't even get the guy's name right. Wilson Rodrigues? I actually said "top contenders". You want to build up Adilson Rodrigues as a top contender, good luck with that. Anyway, you really don't want to be comparing how many ranked fighters Tyson and old Foreman KO'd. It won't end well for you.

When you factor in they're up against Adilson Rodrigues, it rather tips the balance again. The rest has been addressed.

I can understand not wanting to focus on names, since old Foreman only has one "name" on his KO record. Then again he only has one prime top heavy on his KO ledger. And he has none at all of heavies known for having good chins. As already stated, KOs of ranked fighters favours Tyson too. What other criteria can you think of that might put Foreman on top?

Never said you did. Nevertheless, a referee stoppage to save the fighter is still a knockout, even if you don't think so.

Foreman had at least a 30lb weight advantage over everyone. Did it win him those fights? Once again Foreman's supposed advantages only mean something if you ignore Tyson's huge advantages in speed, accuracy, skill, defence, finishing, youth. Which you do. What advantage in power? Where did Foreman's "mental strength" get him against Tommy Morrison?

Glad you agree.

For one thing, he knew George was slow as molasses and could be out-boxed. For another, Tommy's chin wasn't exactly cast iron. Why slug it out when you can just box and move, tag the old man at will and he won't be able to do a damn thing about it.

No. 90s Foreman moved in slow motion.

Old Foreman never showed he could take a Mike Tyson body or head shot. What's your point?

 

Once again who are all these young top heavyweights that old Foreman brutally KO'd to make you think he's going to blast out Tyson? You seem to think this fight is the 24 year old Foreman fighting Joe Frazier and not a 40 year Foreman fighting a 22 year old Mike Tyson. And when Tyson lands old Foreman will just take it? Is he just going to walk through Tyson's power punches? Tyson will land a lot more, and George will miss a lot more.

I'm sure George will land at some point. Thing is, he landed on Holyfield and couldn't KO him. He landed on Stewart and couldn't KO him. The only one he landed on that he did KO was Moorer, whose chin wasn't exactly concrete. One shot won't be enough to get Tyson out of there.

If anyone's going to gas it'll be old George. He's a 40 something fighting a 20 something. He's going to miss more. He's going to get hit more. And there's only so many Tyson punches a 40 year old can take. Just ask Larry Holmes. Halfway through the Holyfield fight the commentators were noting how tired he looked. Tyson never gassed in any fight pre-prison.

How many punches did Alex Stewart and Tommy Morrison land in 12 rounds?

Some of those weren't even slugfests. Foreman-Chuvalo? Bowe-Holyfield? You just listed bunch of bigger fighters who beat smaller fighters, and some of them are arguable. How many of those involved a 20 year age gap? Given Old Foreman was bigger than everyone he fought, how come he lost nearly all his big fights?

Where did I say they hardly landed anything? I said they weren't unloading. Just because they weren't slugging it out with George doesn't mean they weren't nailing him. You think because Foreman survived a backpedalling Tommy Morrison (to lose a lopsided decision) it means he can beat Tyson? You think Alex Stewart surviving Foreman's power and busting him up is a good omen for beating Tyson?

The same Cooney that "glass jaw" Mike Spinks destroyed two years earlier.

He's hardly going to say he'd lose is he?